This is the only archive with the 3ds bios and other files. Hopefully these each come in handy for development.

People who complain just want it taken down, because they are selfish heads.

Good luck.
As I look all over the web, this is the most complete collection. Now where is MESS?

Please answer somehow.

You don't torrent zip files. One, you need double the room to download it. Two, people don't want the entire library of MAME titles. Three, nobody can see what's available. Four, it goes against common sense.

Hi,
i developped a tiny Mame wrapper for linux and windows which download selectively missing roms/software on the rompath from theses internet archive collections.

see https://github.com/TiBeN/ia-mame

As the title says. This huge zip file is not corrupted, just need to unzip it using a 64 bit operating system. 32 bit OS can handle zip files up to 4Gb

I've downloaded the torrent for this file twice. Both to different physical hard drives and both times it shows me that firstly some of the files within the package are corrupt and then tells me that the file is unreadable. I've used standard ZIP, 7-Zip and even tried WinRAR all with the same effect. Either I'm missing something or this file is corrupt.

Pour les personnes qui ont des problemes au chargement (archive trop lourde),il faut cliquer sur le lien "Contents" a coté du lien de l'archive,vous obtiendrez la liste des fichiers de l'arhive sous forme de lien.Copier coller l'ensemble des liens dans un gestionnaire de telechargement (mipony) et voila plus besoin de chopper 42Go d'un coup, vous chopper les archives une par une

Most of the games the average person cares about have been working in MAME for years, so while this collection is a few versions behind it shouldn't matter to most.

As for Gandalf_007's complaint about lack of parity files, torrents are all checksummed. Tell your torrent client to recheck it. Even if you downloaded the big file over straight HTTP the torrent will happily check the file and fix any broken chunks.

If it still doesn't extract when the torrent says it's good, something's wrong with your computer.

As someone who collects and repairs classic arcade games, THANK YOU for hosting these! I could give a rip how many work in emulators. I only care about the real hardware, and this is an invaluable resource for people trying to preserve these games.

This HUGE file (almost 43 Gigabytes) does not have any parity files with it so there is no way to repair it if there are errors. I Downloaded the entire file and it won't even open due to some kind of error. I work with Rar and zip files all the time so I'm not a newbie. I only get so many DL bytes per month from my ISP and 43GB takes a huge chunk. Is there any way I can get some kind of repair files for this? In future, I would recommend making several smaller files instead of one huge file.
Oh, and those who whine about copyrights on these old games, only 1 in several hundred is worth a quarter. It's clear these games were designed to give the average gamer about 1 minute or less of play time per quarter. What a ripoff. Barely acceptable when free!

most of the game are not working.
have been tried with these emulator
mame32 ver.0.901
mameplus_bin-0.152r5100-20131231
MameUI_0.152_64_bits

only about 7-8 thousand are working from 28++ thousand file in this zip file 42GB.

anyone have any better emulator to work out ?
thanks.

Thank you for hosting this here; this is something worth archiving for prosperity and despite the aforementioned legal zeal in the comments, this certainly should fall under fare use as governed by my scrupples. We all spend $$$ on games and software which is rendered useless in the wake of the obsoletion of our hardware/software. We are all doggy locked (vendor lock in) and find ourselves buying the same old classics for each new system, where they rehash them using emulators. Multiple streams of income off the same game, X years later from the same damn consumer. My sympathies are not with content holders who have already made a packet off of their products and expect the gravy train to be never ending. F@#$ em if they can't take a joke.

Melody, Bryce and Martin, while your zeal for legality is laudable, the Internet Archive petitioned the Copyright Office of the US and in October 2003 received a set of clarifications and exemptions specifically for abandoned software (sometimes called "abandonware"). This applies to the United States jurisdiction, and may not apply to you all.

Details on the ruling and exemptions can be found here: http://archive.org/about/dmca.php and http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/librarian_statement_01.html

While I appreciate the noble intent of the uploader, 'historical value' (fair use) is probably not going to cut it here. Many of these games have trademarked characters that live on in modern incarnations; some of them are still being sold by their owners, wrapped in proprietary emulators; and many of these ROMs are 'bootlegs' and circumvent encryption and copy protection in direct violation of the DMCA. Further, many of these games are still in operation, in arcades, bus stations and amusement parks around the world.

Downloaders need to be aware that they may be committing a crime in their jurisdiction if they download and / or redistribute these files, display the games in a public setting, use any trademarked assets (such as sprites) contained therein without explicit permission from the manufacturer, or even just play the game.

To be completely safe, YOU MUST OWN AN ORIGINAL ROMSET of a game in order to use the copy of it contained within this archive FOR ANY PURPOSE, including personal amusement.

Of course, should IA release a formal statement clarifying legal advice they have received stating downloaders of this file are somehow exempt from copyright and trademark law, and in what capacity, the situation may change, but at this time, any downloader's legal position is questionable, and you have been warned. "I downloaded it from the Internet Archive, so that makes it okay," may not be a defensible position in a court of law.

Sorry to be a party-pooper, but it would suck even worse if an innocent downloader were to face legal penalties because they had the wrong impression. The vast majority of these ROMs are NOT free, neither in speech nor in beer. BEWARE.

No - copyright on these has not expired.

Most video games will have been written in the USA, where the Copyright term is Life of the Author + 70 years, Japan, Life + 50 years or the UK, Life + 70 years.

The earliest video arcade game (Computer Space) was released in 1971 - 42 years ago. So no video games are yet out of copyright.

I was wondering if the copyright of this ROM expired since they are now stored on Archive.org.

Please, don't get me wrong, I don't want to troll anybody, but it makes me wonder because I also want to preserve the IBM OS/2 software installers somewhere public and I don't know when it is going to be legal to do it.

Regards
Martín